CM Punk Shoots?

Now I've been a fan of CM Punk since the moment he appeared on WWE's version of ECW many years back. I thought it was pretty cool to see a guy actually using a submission hold for a finisher, which by then was a rare thing in the WWE. Before that I did hear of him in Ring of Honor and I had an idea of what this man is capable of.

But now years later, I've gotten to watch him evolve into possibly, arguably, one of the best in the WWE today. And the promo that CM Punk cut on Raw last Monday night (old news now) proves that he has a whole lot more to offer. The rumors and questions all point to the same thing: Will CM Punk leave the WWE? Or is this whole thing a work?

I agree that this whole thing is probably one of the best things that has happened in the WWE in a long while. Why? Because it has a lot of people (myself included) wondering if this is real or not? All the news sites that I keep up with can't seem to sort apart if this is real or not and that is pretty rare and pretty cool in these times.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

So yesterday was a day I could caulk up as not that good of a work day. Truth be told, most of the time seems to be not that good days, but that topic is something else entirely. But! It does have some significance towards what I am getting at here, which was I was in a bad mood and what could possibly cure a bad mood at nearly 10PM?

As it were, by some stupidly off chance, my girlfriend apparently scores a pair of tickets for the just released Transformers: Dark of the Moon from a couple whom was in severe disagreement with one another (they were fighting) and they would not be making it to see this new movie on this night.

When does this ever really happen?

Granted, it kind of sucks that the original holders of said tickets got into such a fuss that they couldn't even go to enjoy a movie. I mean even more so considering how expensive movies have become, especially at night these days.

But so it goes, now my girlfriend is in possession of a pair of tickets and I am in a bad mood. But how can a person stay irritated when a pair of tickets for a movie I forgot was coming out that night suddenly appear? Granted this was 10PM and we'd more then likely be in a hell of a pickle if we actually stayed and watched the whole movie.

Did that stop us?

Hell no. And we ended up having to walk our asses home after the movie (which finished around midnight), but you know what? We made it home safe and the movie was pretty good for our money (or lack thereof), so what more can one ask for?

As for the movie itself, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a bit darker then the previous two movies in tone. The situation (without spoiling) is one of helplessness and the war that started on Cybertron is brought full scale to Earth. The other noticeable difference is the change in love interests for Shia LaBeouf's character Sam. Long gone is Megan Fox and in her place is Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (pictured below).

How is her acting? Well she does fill the role well enough, but as it was with Megan Fox's character, she isn't really a major player (or is she?) throughout the course of the movie.


The movie itself is pretty standard fare as far as Transformers movies goes, with the explosions and robot fights and seemingly obligatory comedy character which was filled by the ever crazy Ken Jeong. The only thing that kind of bugs me is the change up in both the Autobots and Decepticons roster of bots. What happened to the new Autobots from Revenge of the Fallen?

-Note: As it were, after having looked up some info on the new Autobots from Revenge of the Fallen (particularly Arcee) and it seems that she/it was destroyed. Huh. I guess that goes to show just how much I actually remember of the second movie.

The action this time around is higher and there are some surprises as the story goes forward. But I am finding it hard to believe that this is the end of the movies, though that seems to be what is being said about this movie. As far as how I'd rate this among the other Transformers movies, I think this one would be my second favorite of the trio (behind the original and Revenge of the Fallen being at the bottom).


So overall? It is worth seeing and it is a pretty decent action movie, though I am not convinced that this is the end of things for this franchise just yet.

Second Chances

I try to pick and play games where I know I'll have fun and enjoy myself. But there have been quite a few times where I was wrong in that and the games weren't nearly as good as I was hoping. But as it has been for me lately, I have been giving some of these games a second chance and finding them to be fun after all (inFamous being a good example of this). Perhaps there has been enough time passed that maybe my opinions of certain games have dulled down enough to where I imagine they were not nearly as bad as I once thought.

Now as I am writing this, I began to look up some info about Final Fantasy XIII again, just to refresh my mind on a few details. Such as the game being released in March of 2010! I suppose my brain believed it was only released this year and not last...

But besides that little mishap, FFXIII is one of the games that I am considering on replaying and ultimately finishing off (finally). Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Final Fantasy XIII-2 sounds promising so far and I also don't like having to leave a Final Fantasy unfinished. Even if I don't really like the majority of the party members... still! I'd like to see how the story ends for myself, hopefully the end will make up for some of the game's lower points.

The other game on my mind lately is, surprisingly enough, Alpha Protocol.

Now I am hoping that if/when I do get around to playing this again, I will enjoy the hell out of it. Or at least more so then I did when I bought the game and was surprised to see how bad it really was. Keep in mind that I am trying to keep an open mind myself, going back into this game especially.

Of these two, I think I would buy back Final Fantasy XIII and most likely Gamefly Alpha Protocol. It seems that would be the best choice...

On the flip side and totally unrelated to either FFXIII or Alpha Protocol, I think I have finally turned the corner about trading in video games. Recently, my girlfriend and I hit up Gamestop and was looking to reserve the oh so Epic Edition of Gears of War 3. I wanted to trade away Dynasty Warriors 7 and Brink. Both games, while not being the best by any means, aren't all that old and so I thought those two could make a nice dent in the price of the Epic Edition Gears 3.

Grand total of those two trade ins? $30.

I was so shocked I had to ask the guy to repeat himself. So that was confirmed immediately, I heard it all correctly the first time.

$30...

It was like I was giving away one of the games for free! Now I don't know what it was, because we've traded in a lot of games in the past and this stuff never really bothered me. But that day... that day that number just bugged the living shit out of me!

So needless to say, yet saying it anyhow... we didn't trade anything in and that ended our second attempt at placing a reservation for Gears 3. Like I said in my previous post, it is a huge goal for me to get this game reserved but things just aren't panning out for that to even come close to happening.

Overall though, I think we will try once again this week... maybe things will be a bit more positive this time around.

Living Life Is No Fun Sometimes

If there is one thing that I've learned since leaving home is that this grown up business can be some real bullshit sometimes. Its the kinds of things that a kid never considers, I know I never ever thought I'd have to deal with adults who act more immature then kids for example. All that is important is to be grown up and being a big boy and making my own choices! No more parents telling me to go to sleep!

Now if only life allowed for things to be that simple...

I could go on a rant about my work, but I'll save myself and anyone who happens to read this, the headache of having to endure that. It is still the shits, it was before and still is today and sinking lower and faster then ever before. That is that in a nutshell!

My real gripe has been this business of trying to move from the apartment that I've been sharing with my girlfriend, into something a little cheaper and ultimately a better deal for us in the long run. The problem has been the folks we're renting from, whom we can't get a hold of for the life of us. But if we owe them money or anything of the sort, they call us and fast!

Interestingly enough, we apparently cannot move out from our apartment because we are in a contract and because the owner of the place is promised X amount of dollars, we just CANNOT leave. Unless of course, we can find someone to take over our lease!

O...K...

This of course comes after our previous realtor changed out to these idiotic new guys and never had the decency to even inform us of the turn over. It was just one of those unexpected surprises (literally) that life seems to enjoy tossing out there every now and again.

We just have to survive ONE MORE MONTH! How hard could that be right? I mean, it can only get better from here right? Right?!

I just want to make it to reserve a truly Epic Edition of Gears of War 3 (and even the replica Retro Lancer) and I don't think I've give a shit about anything else that life throws my way. People are work want to bitch and complain? Go ahead! GAH!

Sorry, I am a little spotty with my blogging habits lately and even this post is really skimming on a lot of the finer details. But then I suppose that is all for the best, because I don't think I'd even feel any better if I were to actually type out a word for word account of the things going on in my life these days. That and it would be boring as hell...

Like this post is...

Back to gaming!

inFAMOUS 2

I'll just throw this out there right now: To me, inFAMOUS 2 is on a similar level as Assassin's Creed II in that it does a lot more improving on what made the original game so much fun. Having much of the same powers from the first game, then adding more to that does give you a feeling of actually being powerful. But more about all of that later.

The story seemingly picks up after then ending of the first game, which is all new to me since I never finished the original inFAMOUS. But this game does a pretty decent job at filling in players as to events of the original, leading up to a crazy battle against The Beast.

Sorry a random note here: Couldn't someone have come up with a name a little more thoughtful then The Beast? I didn't and still have not taken this bad guy seriously because of it, because to me whenever I hear someone say "The Beast," I recall that dog from the old baseball kids movie The Sandlot, where much of the plot revolves around a dog named "The Beast."

Moving along...

So the whole purpose of coming to this new area (New Marais) is so Cole can acquire more power to fight The Beast. Simple enough, no?

The combat in the game is about the same as the original game, with the only changes I've noticed were the buttons being mapped a little differently on the controller. Okay and there is the Amp, which is a weapon that Cole uses that does feel a little better then just punching bad guys out. Personally, I prefer the Katana but the Amp is pretty awesome in it's own right too. Otherwise everything feels right at home on this front.

The starting set of powers is just about everything there was from the original, though some powers are missing until later in the game. The upgrades for these powers are okay, if maybe a little generic to be truthful. Things didn't really pick up for me until later, when you actually acquire some new elemental tricks...

The one aspect that also caught me off guard was the change in voice actors for the game's main character Cole McGrath. I don't really know how to describe the change in his voice, other then to say that this time around he actually sounds a bit younger. Maybe less gruff? Anyway this is ultimately a minor gripe, one that even I've forgotten about as I progress further into the story.

The karma system is still pretty unchanged from the original game, though to go either good or bad is pretty black and white to be sure. If you want to be the hero, just save the people from being mugged or captured and heal people that are in need of a healing hand (though there aren't bodies littering every street corner like there was in the first game). 

As far as glitches are concerned, I haven't really run into anything noticeable as of yet. About the only thing I've encountered was sometimes getting Cole stuck in/on the enemy turret guns. Luckily it hasn't been the type of glitch that forces you to have to restart the game.

The only real problem I have with this is the change in the way the people interact with Cole. They still do run up and generally cheer you and what not, that has not changed. What has changed is when you hit the status of Hero, civilians tend to run into battle and attack the enemies you are trying to fight. I've been tagged countless times with bad karma points already because of stray shots that end up nailing a person running in the way to chase after the bad guys.

PSN Welcome Back

I've been making very good use of my PS3 lately, much more so then I have been in the past 6 months or so. Aside from inFamous 2, I've collected a few things from the "Welcome Back" program that Sony has out there. I've played Dead Nation, Super Stardust HD and even the original inFamous (using my own account as well as my girlfriend's). I actually like Dead Nation and Super Stardust HD, maybe more so because they were free. But in all seriousness, Dead Nation is like a Smash TV type of game, just loaded up with a lot of zombies. Super Stardust HD is a fun starship shooter and the action does get pretty crazy, pretty often. So really, I actually did have fun playing through what little I've seen of both of those games.

As for inFamous, well that I've played before and I got back into that game a little bit. But with the release of it's sequel, the original will just have to take a backseat.

Last thing I'll write about that is the free trial of the PS Plus program. It seems okay to me and there are some interesting freebies involved, but I kind of don't like the idea that once you stop being a member, all that stuff goes dead. I'm guessing that involves everything you take from that, so the background theme that I downloaded off of that will certainly be dead very soon then.

So would I sign up for this program after the 30 day trial ends? Honestly? Despite having some cool stuff, I just don't see a whole lot there that makes me want to sign up. And the fact that I won't get to keep anything should I stop being a member doesn't make for a great selling point for me either.

Halo Returns

So E3 is under way and Microsoft had a few big announcements, but the only ones that mattered much to me were the announcements for Halo 4, which will mark the return of Master Chief and the remake of the original Halo. So the fight wasn't finished after Halo 3 after all I suppose. Interesting note is apparently Halo 4 will also be the launching point of a new trilogy for the series as well. But I have to wonder if it'll be able to maintain it's popularity, considering the masterminds behind the series (Bungie) won't be working on this new set of Halo games.

The rest of the announcements were all focused on Kinect (something I don't really intend on buying anytime soon), so it didn't exactly capture my attention at all. After picking up a Wii some years ago and now seeing it collecting more and more dust, I still just do not see anything that justifies buying a Kinect or Move at this point. I wonder if either company will even move past the casual gaming stuff and into something more?

I guess I should mention the new streaming TV stuff that was also announced. I hope it turns out to be better then Hulu (what is with all those commercials anyway?) or I think I might dodge this "service" in the future as well. Netflix still rules the roost in my opinion...

With Microsoft done, I can only wonder what Sony and Nintendo have up their sleeves (new HD Nintendo console perhaps?) to outshine what Microsoft unveiled? I am assuming the NGP will make an appearance here, though I am also looking forward to the demo for the new WWE 12 game that is suppose to be appearing during E3 as well.

From Dust

Ever since I started seeing trailers and videos for this game, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of this game called "From Dust." I mean you are basically playing as a god here and you can shape the island and help these people thrive and prosper. Or I would assume you could also destroy them if you so choose, but I wonder what the purpose of the game would be then? Either way, this game looks like it has a ton of potential to be a lot of fun.

Anyhow, I haven't seen any real solid release dates for this downloadable game but I have seen the date July 30th, so at least that gives me something to bend my brain around. Of course any day sooner then that would be greatly awesome too...

WWE Reboot

So one of my staple game purchases has almost always been the WWE wrestling games. What? I'm genuinely hooked to the creation portion of these games. Besides that though, I am generally always interested in seeing what has changed from the previous game the year before. The usual changes includes stuff like updated rosters, enhanced graphics, better physics, etc. But every so many years, the game gets turned upside down and everything changes (last year was the inclusion of the WWE Universe mode, more on that in a bit).

But this year should be something different, since it was announced that the series would not be carrying the Smackdown vs. Raw name anymore. As for what that entails for the series? It seems like the usual changes, which is kind of disappointing considering this is something like a reboot for the series.

I am personally hoping there is a smarter, much more flexible WWE Universe mode this year. I hope rivalries mean something, as does stables and tag teams. It is extremely frustrating to try and set up epic battles when teams are broken up on a whim and your world champion opens the show every week and loses to any and all who challenge him. And for the love of all things great, I hope the Universe mode isn't all inclusive in that you are always playing through whatever idiotic line up of matches it decided to make.

How I miss the exhibition mode...

It actually got the point where I didn't even what to play 2011 and have since reverted back to playing the 2010 version instead. I had a lot of fun there and a ton of wrestlers created that I just couldn't replicate in 2011. Not that it has been easy trying to draw up the designs of over 20+ created wrestlers, but I think I've just about gotten down the guys I liked of that bunch anyway.

Anyhow, expect to read more about this as the info begins to surface in the coming months. Apparently they've (THQ) been at this since May of last year, so they've already gotten a year of work into this thing already. And I've read that there will be a demo of this at E3, so news about this reboot is definitely in the near future.